Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700-1870 (Cambridge Studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology) (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) (Paperback)

Review
"In this excellent study Sabean brings together a wealth of material illuminating in detail the fate of a village and its families during a crucial period in Germany history....this is a superb historical and ethnographic study of a German village, which anthropologists and others will refer to for a long time to come." American Ethnologist

"...Sabean has written by far the best historical study of kinship and family relations in the German countryside." American Historical Review

"There is a great deal in this book to stimulate the imagination...an excellent book." Canadian Journal of History

"...merits close reading by everyone working on the family, women, agricultural change and property not only in continental Europe, but anywhere in the world. It will even make the type of generalizations we so easily make in the context of teaching Western Civ much more questionable, requiring the rewriting of lectures we had thought satisfactorily up-to-date. That extra work may make many of us hope that Sabean takes as long to finish his book on kinship as he did this one, for it will certainly be just as challenging." Merry E. Wiesner, Journal of Social History

Product Description
This landmark study of family relations in a village in southern Germany is the product of deep reflection on anthropological approaches to historical problems. David Sabean is concerned to recover the tenor of marital relationships within a particular context of production and surplus extraction; he is concerned equally with capturing the logic of gender and generational conflict within strategies of subsistence and survival, the fabric of rights and obligations, and the coherence of life trajectories. Sabean’s analysis of Neckarhausen is a challenge to conventional notions about modernization and family and kinship. As population increased and an influx of captial brought about a reorganization of agricultural production, for managing the forces of social reproduction. Peasants, it turns out, were innovative and flexible, experimenting with new commodity markets. The ‘green revolution’ at the dawn of the modern era is shown to have had a tremendous impact on the utilization of labor. Intensification of agriculture completely reorganized women’s schedules, bringing about a new labor discipline and a crisis in marital relationships. Arguing for the concept of ‘property’ as a fundamental tool for social analysis, Sabean examines the peculiarities of property devolution, the distribution of tools, and the sale of land. His book is a stunning example of history written from the perspective of ‘everyday life’.

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First Sentence
The socioeconomic structures which developed in the half century after the Thirty Years War continued to characterize Wurttemberg until past the middle of the nineteenth century. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5.0 out of 5 stars How history really ought to be written, 20 Jan 2008 By  Brian Griffith (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews This is a fantastic piece of research, patiently exploring patterns of change among the families of a German village. The surprisingly thorough records of Neckarhausen give Sabean an almost intimate access to these people's lives. As wider currents of history ripple through the village, Sabean captures shifts in the ground rules of human relations. For one example, as German law removed the legal authority of husbands over wives, the question naturally arose: If men had no right to beat or kill their wives, what would stop women from leaving abusive marriages? Increasingly the answer was: nothing. If the neighbors and police would both defend a fleeing woman from attack by her husband, then force in a marriage was suddenly quite counterproductive. It now seemed that neither clergymen nor family "heads" could hold their flocks by force. The "subordinates" would only vote with their feet, toward a more loving environment if they could see one. So through the 1700s and 1800s in Germany, the rate of separation between spouses grew. Studies of local records show that in most separation cases, the wives left their husbands, usually for drunkenness, physical abuse, and/or wasting family resources. The abandoned husbands often appealed to their local pastors or priests, trying to have the church exercise its old authority and force the wives to return. With each passing decade it worked less often. Sabean's approach, I think, is close to the best for researching and writing history. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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